


Cluster

by sergeant_angel



Category: Sense8 (TV), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, SHIELD and the avengers still exist but the young avengers don't, but sort of not?, in honor of sense8 rewatch month!, not as a team anyway, polyamory because sense8, sort of a non-powered au?, wholly indulgent sense8 crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2019-09-21 12:59:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17044199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sergeant_angel/pseuds/sergeant_angel
Summary: It starts with a headache, and when it ends, you have seven other selves.(the Young Avengers might not be a team in every universe, but they'll always find each other)





	1. Birth

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter one: there's only so many ways to say "a blonde woman suddenly appeared out of nowhere" and "wow my head hurts"

It's midmorning when Nomi feels the first twinges of pain, sharp and unusual, beginning in her head and traveling through her body. It's a strange sensation, but familiar, and she can't put her finger on it so she takes some advil and goes on about her day. She and Neets can talk about moving to Paris all they want, but there's still the logistics of moving, and now that they're back home...well, they're _home_. It’s harder to consider leaving than they thought.

Also, finding someone to sublet their apartment is turning into a nightmare.

Maybe it just seems worse because of this full-body pain.

The pain fades as the sun sets and Nomi doesn’t think anything more of it.

But then it happens again, and again.

* * *

"Nomi, what's going on?" Sun asks the fifth time this happens in two weeks.

"I don't know," Nomi admits, and at once they're all there, her family surrounding her, worry etched into their features. "I don't know, and I'm kind of scared."

It feels okay to admit it out loud, even though they already know. Even though they already know that the last time she felt like this Dr. Metzger tried to slice her head open and--

"Oh!" Riley says, before her face goes blank. She reanimates a moment later and there's Mr. Hoy. They all met him at her wedding, she remembers dimly, as another burst of pain lances through her.

"Ach, aye, nothing to be worried about," he reassures Riley, coming up to Nomi and squeezing her hand. "How long's this been going on, then?"

"A few weeks."

He taps the side of his nose, giving them all a knowing look.

“What’s going on?” Neets asks, following Nomi’s line of sight.

“Who’s there?” Bug chimes in.

“Everyone,” Nomi says. “And Mr. Hoy.”

“You’re getting ready to birth a cluster,” he says, bluntly. “How long’s this been goin’ on then?”

“What?” Nomi stares at him. “But—how? _How_?”

Mr. Hoy shrugs.

“Two weeks. Three weeks tomorrow,” Riley answers, and they all turn to look at her.

Mr. Hoy nods. “Might be soon, then. There’s no real rhyme or reason to it, but as far as we can tell, takes about a week for two cluster members, give or take.” He shrugs. “You’ll know when it’s time.”

* * *

"Will!" It's the first name Nomi thinks of, the man who helped save her from a lobotomy, the man she's leaned on to save the other members of their cluster, the only one who knew Jonas and Angelica like she did.

He's there; Riley, too, and they go to Nomi, one on either side of her, taking her hands.

"Is it time, Nomi?" Riley asks, voice soft.

"Nomi?" Will asks. His voice is hard where Riley's is soft, but those tones, different as they are, mean the same thing: _we are here for you. We love you. We will protect you._

Nomi squeezes their hands harder. "I'm not sure," Nomi gasps, biting back a sob. "I hope so, because if this gets worse I'm going to--oh, shit," Nomi says, gripping their hands tighter as another wave of pain contracts across her forehead.

Will laughs at her swearing, a quiet chuckle. "Ready to be a mom, Nom?"

"No I fucking am _not_ ," Nomi gasps out, the pain worsening, when suddenly she feels Lito's hands on her neck.

"It's okay, Nomi," he croons. "Just breathe, all right?"

She screams as the pain worsens.

"Shh, babe, hey, it's okay," Neets says, dropping the ice pack she's put together and rushing to Nomi's side. Bug is right behind her, and they take her hands. "Do Will and Riley know what's happening?"

"They're here. So is Lito--"

"We're all here," Sun says, and they are, her cluster around her, and it's too much—the pain in her head and the memories of the night they were born, Hernando and Daniela cuddling up to Lito, the smell of disinfectant and spices as Kala gets home, Rajan and Felix laughing at Wolfgang's joke, the train screaming past Will and Riley, Mun panting as he and Sun stop sparring, Jela's hand slapping Capheus' back--

Across the world, a sharp pain cracks through the heads of eight people. Nomi can see them. Nomi can feel them.

And they're beautiful.

* * *

Almost four hundred miles south of Nomi Marks, Kate Bishop feels a headache growing behind her eyes. It starts small and blooms rapidly, quickly encompassing her whole head and traveling down her neck to her shoulders. It feels like someone's stuck a spike through her eye, like her brain is trying to scramble itself and run out of her ears.

It seems excessively dramatic to say this is the worst pain Kate has ever experienced, but it's certainly up there. It's so bad it has her retching the coffee and half a bagel she'd managed to eat up in an alleyway.

On the tip of her tongue, like a phantom memory, she can taste something else, redolent with oil and onions.

She throws up some more.

For a moment no longer than a heartbeat, she feels the pain multiply, intensify, she can hear someone yelling in Spanish and feel a cool breeze off of the ocean--

The sensations fade in in a burst of pain. Kate looks up and sees a woman, tall, blonde, thick-framed dark glasses sliding down her nose, staring at her. If Kate wasn't heaving up her guts while her brain tries to explode, she might say that the woman was looking at her with wonder.

"It's going to be okay," the woman says. Her voice sounds raw, like she's spent hours talking. "I know, right now, it doesn't seem that way, but I promise, in a few days, the pain will go away and you'll be—you'll be so much more than you are now."

_Fuck._

"Did you drug me?" Kate asks. The pressure in her head is more bearable now, though if that's just because she's gotten used to it or because it's actually going away remains to be seen.

"What?" The woman looks horrified. "No! No, oh my god, no--" she looks to the side. "Yes, thank you, I realize now that was really creepy sounding."

Her eyes move to the other side, to a space right behind Kate, everywhere but Kate. "None of you are being helpful right now," the woman says, before looking at Kate apologetically. "I'm really sorry. I'll come back in a few days, okay?"

And then she's gone.

Kate goes from thinking the woman might be mentally ill to thinking that she herself is slowly losing her mind. She scrabbles for her phone before realizing that Steve _and_ Bucky are on a mission halfway around the world, Clint is back in New York, Gwen is doing god knows what--

Kate fumbles for her battered sunglasses and jams them on, and makes her way back to her office.

* * *

 

Halfway around the world, Billy Kaplan is shopping for fabric. It's morning in Tel Aviv when the headache hits, interrupting his creative flow for his new designs.

Headache seems a little tame for what’s happening to him, the brightly colored silks and handpainted cottons all taking on a shimmering aura as pain hammers into his skull.

His stomach lurches before settling and he puts his hand down on a stack of burnout velvets, soft and plush as he steadies himself.

The velvet feels cold and metallic. When he looks up he’s under the fluorescent lights of a hospital, leaning against a metal tray, and he has a moment of panic—where is he? What happened? Before he’s back in the fabric store, staring unseeingly at a wall of different buttons.

He spies a flash of blonde hair, follows it on instinct behind a bolt of vegan leather and stacks of wool suiting.

“Hey!”

“Hi.” She smiles at him, pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose before she’s gone.

* * *

Teddy Altman shakes his head. For a minute there it felt like he could feel the early-morning sun and something soft under his hand.

It must be the headache. He knows he’ll forget to take something for it, he should probably get something for it now but he’s in the middle of rounds and he just wants to finish and then take a five minute nap. The nap would probably help. He’s just tired, that’s all, that’s what’s with the headache, he’ll get off in four hours and just go home and sleep. He won’t even bother to shower.

He swallows, tasting an everything bagel for some reason, and he must be more tired than he realized because he blinks and when he opens his eyes a woman is standing in front of him, a woman who wasn’t anywhere near him before.

“Can I help you?”

She looks at him, puzzled. “Are you a doctor?”

“A resident. But I can help, what’s wrong?”

“That will be interesting,” she says. “I’m sorry about the headache.”

And then, just as suddenly as she appeared, she’s gone.

What?

* * *

The walls are blank. Smooth, white, boring.

This place is more comfortable than Asgard's dungeons but it's dull as anything. It's this way for a reason; the room is specially built to interfere with Loki's particular wavelength of magic.

And also to bore them to tears, to be so  _uninteresting_ that Loki's brain simply stops working.

Could they find a workaround? Probably, but building trust with Midgardians is part of the deal Loki and Thor struck with SHIELD. Loki is trying to be a better person, just with...middling success.

So, boring room. Part of the deal. SHIELD is better than not knowing who to trust or if your mother is manipulating you into becoming evil, or--

There's woman in the room.

Not part of Loki's SHIELD detail, or any of the Avengers they've had the misfortune to meet.

"I didn't do it!" Loki says immediately. May as well get that out of the way right now before Coulson or May barges in guns blazing about how this happened.

"Are you in prison?" She asks, concern etching lines into her face. "What for?"

“Oh, you know.” Loki waves their hand. “This and that.”

She raises an eyebrow. "Okay, then," and she's gone.

* * *

The sun is beginning to think about setting and the light digs its way past Cassie's eyes. Of all the days to get a huge fucker of a migraine like this. Tommy is jabbering away, going back over the details again and again, like talking through a job twenty times or forty will make the outcome go their way.

Tommy's accent fades in and out, American, French, something Eastern European that Cassie doesn't have a good enough ear to place. He does that; just part of who he is. He slips other personas on easily, and it comes in handy when they're working a job.

Never an Australian accent, which is always funny to Cassie, since that's where they  _are_ \--

The pain jabs at her again, like her skull is two sizes too small—and she knows about too small.

She doesn’t use the suit too often, too risky, just like they don't use Tommy's special skills unless the choice is that or jail. It's only come down to that once. They're very good at what they do.

A woman stands over Cassie, the sun catching in her golden-yellow hair and Tommy's still talking.

Cassie kicks him under the table and her glares at her. "What?"

Cassie jerks her head in the woman's direction, but Tommy just glares more. "What? You think there's a security camera over there that can hear us?"

The stranger's lips thin as she presses them together, as though she's holding back a laugh. "He can't see me or hear me," she says. "I'd explain, but you seem busy. I'll come back another time."

She reaches out, squeezing Cassie's shoulder. "Don't worry. It'll make sense, eventually."

* * *

David Alleyne feels like someone's trying to tear his skull open. He's had headaches before, but this is a capital-H Headache. For a second, the pain flares down his entire upper body, licking at wounds half-forgotten, old concussions and whiplash--

Except he's never had concussions or whiplash. He can taste something creamy and cinnamon-y before a woman with dark curly hair frowns at him from across the street. Funny, she wasn't there a second ago--

He blinks and she is gone.

Strangely, he feels homesick. Misses the sun and the baking heat, misses testing new gear with Shuri--

He sighs, digging his thumbs against the bridge of his nose, hoping that will reorient the pressure in his head.

It doesn't, but when he opens his eyes a woman sits across from him, and he jerks back, his chair scraping across the concrete.

She looks over his shoulder, behind him, her eyes lighting up behind thick frames. "You're in Paris," she says, delighted, her voice a rich and smoky, like the old jazz singers on the records Leah sometimes makes them listen to when they hang out.

"Are you okay?" He asks her.

He asks no one. She's gone.

* * *

Tension headaches are part and parcel with this job, Eli knows, but this one is a real bitch. He works through it, though, because he has to, and in three hours he can sleep for a day and a half, if he wants.

Now, though, he's got to convince some poor dumb college kid that neither he nor any of the other paramedics are going to call the cops on his buddy's drug use, they just need to know what he took so that they don't make things worse.

He's shining a light in the kid's eyes, checking his reaction times—when Eli looks up, there's a tall skinny white chick staring down at him, smiling like she's just been given a puppy. She looks over at the ambulance, her smile getting bigger. "You're in America."

"Ma'am? Did you take some of what he did?"

"E?" Robbie stares at him. "Dude, who are you talking to?"

Eli shakes his head, squeezing his eyes shut, and when he opens them again, she's gone. Robbie is still staring at him, though, so Eli shrugs. "I'm getting a migraine, man."

“That blows. Take something for it, we’ll stop someplace and get you a coke, see if the caffeine helps.”

* * *

Final flight checks are normally a source of comfort for America—the familiarity of her routine is something she can always depend on, rain or shine, but today everything is shit because of this goddamn headache she’s been nursing since she woke up.

“If you’re not a package or a passenger you need to get away from my plane,” America snaps at the blonde woman in the hangar, chewing on the last of her cinnamon roll.

She pulls up the weather on her phone, just to check that there’s nothing storming in between her and Florida, and when she looks up, the woman is gone and her headache is, if anything, _worse_. 

It doesn’t bode well for the day.

For some reason, she’s craving a coke.

* * *

 

“Wow.”

Neets still has one of Nomi’s hands, Bug the other. Ten people are staring at her.

She’s crying.

“Guys.” her voice is shaking. “They’re amazing.”

 


	2. Meet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh this is so many characters to keep track of. this is barely proofread soooooyeah

Kate lives with Steve and Bucky but it's not _living together_ , though they all have bad nights where they wind up curled into bed together, and sure, there's a flicker of _want_ there, of imagining what it would be like to be kissed by them, to feel those broad, rough hands on her bare skin, but--

Whatever. Not important. What’s important is that they’re not home right now, and that she really just wants to grab Bucky’s hand and put it on her head, and if that doesn’t help to just ask him to crush her skull so she can be done with it.

Kate wonders why her head hurts so much _more_ than everyone else, then wonders who the hell _everyone else_ is and why she knows they have headaches. 

A man, large and blond, stands in her room.

Somehow, she’s not surprised.

“It’s because you’ve had more concussions than the rest of us combined,” he says. 

“What?”

“How do I know that?” He asks, wonderingly, walking over to peer in her eyes. “Also, _why have you had so many concussions_.”

She ducks away from him. “Why are you in my house?” 

“I don’t know. I just got home….” he trails off, tugging at his white jacket.

No. Lab coat.

“Are you a doctor?”

“Almost. Have to finish my residency.”

“Why would my headaches be worse because of concussions?”

“It’s called a pain pathway. Your brain is already used to sending and receiving pain messages that it’s an easy trip for new pain signals.”

“That sounds fake.”

“If you take the same path across the grass every day, eventually there won’t be grass there,” he points out. “Same concept.”

Kate opens her mouth to argue the point but he’s gone.

...weird.

* * *

“Maybe more caffeine will help?” Eli mutters to himself. Nothing he’s tried so far is helping, but there’s still a little part of him going _maybe, maybe_.

“It won’t,” says a grumpy and _familiar_ voice.

Eli freezes and looks behind him. 

“Kate?”

Kate glares as she takes in his living room. “What am I doing  _here_ .”

“Did you break into my house? Jesus, Kate, did you get into something bad?”

“No? I mean, I don’t think so, I saw this blonde lady who wasn’t actually there--”

“Blonde lady? Glasses?”

“Yeah, you...you saw her too?” Kate stares at him. “Joint psychic episode?”

“Again? I mean, how many time can that happen in one life?” Eli reaches out a tentative hand, prodding Kate’s very solid and present shoulder. 

“Ow!”

“I barely touched you!”

“I got slammed into a wall this week!”

“Jesus _Christ_ , why can’t you stay out of trouble?”

“This isn’t my fault!” Kate insists, even though she is very improbably in his living room, radiating anger at him—until she’s not. He can still feel her anger but she’s just _gone_.

“Well,” Eli says to his now empty house. “That was really fuckin’ weird.”

* * *

America glances to the side and--

She does  _not_ scream. At all. She doesn’t scream. She’s not a screamer.

“ _Why are you yelling how the fuck did I wind up in a plane oh my god_ ,” a blonde lady screams right back. “Fuck, oh, fuck, Tommy is going to go to _jail_ , I am going to _die_.”

“HOW ARE YOU ON MY PLANE?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” The woman takes a deep breath. “I was in Sydney a minute ago--”

“Australia?”

“Yeah, that one.”

“I like your accent.”

“A strange woman magically appears on your plane and you decide to hit on her?”

“Clearly the work of some sort of teleport. And only if the woman is cute.” America winks broadly at her. Also, if she’s some crazy stowaway, best to keep her pacified.

“Oh, no,” Blondie moans. “Oh, god this is an alien abduction, isn’t it? Look, I’m not important, okay, I’m not a leader, just take me back--”

She’s gone before America hears what the plan was. She blinks rapidly. Are hallucinations common with migraines?

* * *

“Oh, for the love of--”

First he’s in some weird girl’s apartment, now some guy is in his house, and, yes, okay, he’s heart-stoppingly beautiful with hair that falls in his eyes but Teddy is _tired_ , he wants to go to _bed_ \--

“Sorry. Sorry, uh, how did I get here?”

“Beats me.”

“It’s just--” he looks around like he’s lost something. “I’m in the middle of designing a capsule collection and it seems I’ve lost my sketchbook and if I don’t find it soon I’m going to kill someone.”

Teddy blinks at him. “Uh. Well, there’s no reason for it to be in my apartment. I mean, feel free to look all you like, but--”

He’s gone.

* * *

“Well, this is certainly better than prison.” Loki makes a show of looking around. “Paris! Lovely.”

The man at the table doesn’t look particularly startled by their sudden appearance, which is a shame. Whatever _this_ is, it seems to be a good way to surprise people.

“I’m Loki. Norse deity of mischief.”

Still nothing. 

The man gives them a long look, sipping from a demitasse. 

“Espresso?” Loki tries again. "I missed Paris the last time I was in this part of the world.”

“You can call me David,” the man finally says. Loki ingests this information with a grin.

“I can _call_ you David, does that mean that David isn’t your real name?”

“You’re Loki. A Trickster. I didn’t think you were supposed to tell tricksters your real name.”

Loki grins. “I think we’re going to get along well, you and me.”


	3. Learn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate takes a drive and learns some things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suppose I should have prefaced this with "this is not really a fic, it's just a bunch of interactions" so just...please keep your expectations nice and low for this  
> (I just love the idea of Neets and Bug being So Down for sensate shenanigans)
> 
> also I'm playing with how to format visiting interactions. so that might change.

Kate takes a deep breath, and knocks.

She can hear swearing on the other side of the door, an excited squeal, before it's being thrown open and a woman Kate has never seen before is flinging her arms around Kate, going, "Oh my god, it's so good to meet you finally!"

"Um," Kate says, looking down at the woman. Kate is not tall herself, which means this woman is tiny. She is barefoot, and Kate suddenly feels wrong, like she's intruding on someplace she shouldn't; like she's violated some unspoken rule. That when Kate had seen the old BOLO for Nomi Marks and recognized her face, that she should have just ignored it. She shouldn’t have kept digging but digging is what she _does--_

"Nomi!" The woman yells, and Kate feels a thrum of recognition. "Nomi, it's her, she's here, oh my god, she’s here!"

“What?” A rough man calls, a man poking his head around a corner, scruffy and messy. “Aw. _Shit!_ Buddy! One of your kids is here!”

“Come in, come in!” The woman releases Kate from the hug and drags her into the apartment, shutting the door firmly behind them.

“Baby Angel,” the man says, continuing the trend of nobody making any fucking sense at all. “You’re too new to be a full fledged Angel yet.”

“I know this probably seems really fucking weird, but trust me. It gets _awesome_. I’m Amanita, that’s Bug, and that’s--”

Kate knows before she sees the woman, knows that she knows her, that Nomi Marks isn't just a face she's seen or someone she's hallucinated, that Nomi Marks is a part of her, and she can feel the tears dripping down off of her chin as she sees Nomi in person for the first time.

Nomi is crying, too, and she reaches her hands out to Kate and it's instinct for Kate to reach out to her, too, to pull Nomi Marks into a hug, to squeeze her as tightly as she can because even if Kate doesn’t understand what's going on, Nomi Marks is important.

“Kate?”

Kate nods. “Nomi?”

Nomi nods. She’s crying, too, smiling thought it. “I know this must seem so weird, and you must have so many questions, and we’ll try to answer them.”

Kate allows herself to be guided to a table, to have a cup of tea pressed into her hands and a pastry put on a plate in front of her.

“So I’m telepathic now?”

“Shiiiiiiit,” Bug draws out the invective. “She’s smart.” he flips a chair around, sitting in it backwards, gangly arms draped across it. “Definitely an Angel.”

Kate squints at him, looking from him to Amanita to Nomi. “What’s—what’s he talking about?”

“Charlie’s Angels,” Amanita says with a fond eye-roll.

“We fight crime,” Bug finishes.

Kate can’t stop the laugh that escapes her. “Really?”

“You already do that, though, don’t you?” Nomi asks, her eyes sharp. “You found us, after all.”

“I’m...a PI,” Kate admits.

Behind her, Eli snorts. _“Yeah, among other things.”_

“Not helpful,” she mutters.

“You’re talking to one of them,” Amanita nods knowingly.

“Have you met all of them?” Nomi asks.

“I don’t know, I don’t even know what this is!”

“This might come as a shock to you.” Nomi takes Kate’s hand and leads her to a couch, sitting her down. “But you’re not...exactly _human_ anymore.”

Kate and a few of the people in her head collapse onto the couch. “What?”

* * *

Nomi’s been telling them for the past thirty minutes not to worry about the BPO anymore, but Kate and Eli share the same sinking feeling, and Loki keeps bouncing their foot.

“ _Please, guys, I’m begging you to chill out, I’m trying to sleep, okay?”_ Teddy pleads from the windowseat. 

Kate and Eli don’t have to say anything—they’re thinking about the last mission they’d been tasked with, almost three years ago, the one in the mountains with Clint, with the kids now being raised on a beach with Barney Barton and Simone. 

“ _This is bad,”_ Eli says, like they don’t already know it.

“You’re in a SHIELD facility, right?” Kate directs the question to Loki.

“ _Yes, but they_ expect _unusual brain activity from me. I’m not exactly normal.”_

“ _You’re also a lot more human than you’d have us believe,”_ David chimes in. “ _You say you’re gods but if you’re_ homo sensorium _that means you had to be closer to_ homo sapiens _than you’d like to admit.”_

“ _It’s probably like mutants and huma—oh.”_ Billy shifts uncomfortably. _“I probably should have mentioned that. If you didn’t already know.”_

“ _Mention what?”_ David turns to Billy.

“Look, guys, seriously? Focus up, please.” Nomi and Amanita share a smile that Kate can’t even begin to decipher. “We have serious issues here, and, no offense, but how do you know that BPO won’t cause us problems? I know SHIELD did a lot to cover it up, after, but Eli and I know firsthand how deep organizations like that can hide.”

“ _There’s nothing quite like waking up one morning to realize you work for Hydra,”_ Eli says, mostly to himself. The rest of the group—their _cluster—_ has faded in and out through the conversation—something Nomi insists they’ll get better at controlling—but Eli has remained constant.

“ _Probably because we knew each other before_.”

“God, that’s so weird.”

“ _You’re telling me. I’m supposed to be on a date right now.”_

“Did you say you couldn’t make it because your ex is going crazy?”

“ _If you’re going crazy, I’m going crazy, too. Fuck. What if this is SHIELD’s way of burning us? Oh my god. They would! They would totally--”_

“ _It’s more likely that someone knows what you did and is trying to break you for the intelligence you carry.”_ David doesn’t look worried, but he feels it, and it makes Kate worry, too.

“Again. Really fucking helpful, guys.”

“ _If SHIELD finds out and wants to use this against us--”_ Loki begins.

“ _If anyone finds out,”_ David interjects. _“You two are government—or former government—agents. You’re a prince. I’m--”_ He doesn't finish but he doesn't need to, because they can feel it, they can remember the sun and the vibranium and--

“ _Holy shit, you’re from Wakanda? Kate, you’ve got this, I’m gonna, uh, try and--”_ Eli vanishes, followed by David. 

“ _Wait! I want to know, too!”_ And just like that, Loki’s gone, leaving Kate by herself. 

“Well, fuck that,” she says. 

“You’re all really good at visiting already, I think,” Nomi observes. 

Sharing. Visiting. Cluster. Homo sensorium. Sensate. Kate  _isn't human._ Her mind spins with the new knowledge, new words and ideas and the realization that she is now connected to seven other people now incapable of keeping secrets from one another. 

They’re in so much trouble. 

_She’s_ in so much trouble. 

“Is there any way to—to _not_ be connected to them?” Kate asks, and is rewarded by Nomi going completely grey as the blood drains from her face. “Because—because--”

Kate panics. She’s kept it at bay because she didn’t understand, because her  _cluster_ was here and she needed to keep them focused because she was the one actually hearing the information, but now she’s alone and her carefully crafted life is about to slip through her fingers. 

“There are things—they’re called blockers,” Nomi begins, slowly, reluctantly. “You can take them and it disrupts the psycelium. Being unconscious, or drugged--” she looks at someone over Kate’s shoulder and bites her lip, looking incredibly sad. 

“Those all sound temporary.”

“There’s no permanent way to block your cluster. Trust me, you don’t want to do that. Being part of a cluster is amazing--”

“You don’t get it! I have people I need to protect, and secrets and—and--and I’ not in control of them anymore!”

“ _You’re afraid one of us will sell them, or betray them,”_ the blonde she’s never really met but knows is Cassie says. 

“I don’t know any of you! Now I’m a danger to all of you and you’re all a danger to me, and to the people I care about!”

“They won’t hurt you,” Nomi rushes to explain, putting a comforting hand on Kate’s arm. “Because you’re them, and they’re you, don’t you see? They wouldn’t hurt you because it would hurt them, and vice versa.”

“ _Yeah, I don’t give a shit where Captain America lives anyway_ ,” America flops down on Kate’s other side, slicing into an apple that she proceeds to eat and Kate can taste.

“ _Don’t be stupid,”_ Cassie continues. _“It would take a lot of money for me to sell that kind of information, and it would have to be enough to kill you, too, since you could find me anywhere I went and then I reckon we’d have Eli to deal with still. Too much work.”_

“Thanks for letting me know the plan.”

“ _Don’t mention it.”_

Strangely, it makes Kate feel better.

“ _Yeah,_ ” Cassie offers her a smug smile. “ _Because I’m awesome at this. I have to go steal something now, so I’ll talk to you girls later.”_

Kate and America just stare at the space Cassie vacated.


	4. Travel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate goes on a trip, and it IS a trip.

Kate’s been to Chicago once, when someone was trying to use the Bean as an interdimensional portal. Not that she’d done anything about it; both her and Eli had been probationary agents and had to fill out forms in triplicate if they so much as sneezed, so it takes a while to find the precinct she’s looking for, the cops involved with the downfall of BPO. She wants to know what they found, and how sure they are that everything’s gone. Nomi had insisted that it _was_ gone, that sensates are safe, but Kate can’t just accept that, and she can’t sit still. She’s seen too much to take something like that on faith.

Unless Kate knows who might want to harm her and her cluster, why and how, she can’t know that the people she cares about are safe. Gwen Poole  and Wade  would be fine, probably, but what about Clint and Nat, Steve and Bucky?  Marcus and Finch?

Every time she thinks it might be okay, she remembers those kids being experimented on,  that last mission she’d done with Clint before being knocked back to a reserve agent . And she can’t, with any certainty, say that they  _weren’t_ sensates, or future sensates. 

She’s dreamt about them every night for a week, those kids in giant tubes, wires attached to them, and in the background is a woman in a dirty nightgown with tangled blonde hair.

The second time it had happened, she’d crawled in to Steve and Bucky’s bed—it’s pretty normal for her to do that, she’s got an open invitation if she ever has trouble sleeping--

But she can’t stay still, not anymore. She has to find out herself.

She wakes up one morning, throws some stuff in a bag, says a quick goodbye to Steve and Bucky just as they got home from their mission. They’d known something was wrong, she could see it in the way they’d frowned at her, but you don’t work with someone for five years and live with them for two without realizing when something’s up and--

“ _Breathe. You’re panicking. I get panic attacks all the time and you just need to keep breathing.”_

Kate takes a deep breath. “Thanks, Billy.”

He stays with her until she opens the door to the station.

She gets some looks when she asks for the guys affiliated with the BPO op, but she gets shown in to the bullpen and introduced to Officers Diego Morales and Will Gorski. Morales offers her a chair while Gorski flips open a notebook. “So, what can we help you with, ma’am?”

“I hear you’re the men to talk to about BPO and Milton Brandt’s genetic research.”

Officer Will Gorski’s face does something Kate can’t describe. Shock morphs to horror and all the blood rushes from his face. She half-thinks he’s going to shoot her before something breaks him out of his reverie.

“What?” He asks, but he’s not looking at her.

“Is it classified or something? Because I have clearance.”

“Are you sure?” Again, it’s almost like he’s not talking to her.

“I’m pretty sure, dude.”

Officer Gorski is staring at her differently now, his eyes going soft and damp.

"Kate?" He says, his voice different, like someone else is using it. "Katie?" He reaches out to her and Kate slaps her hand around his wrist, keeping him away. Even Officer Morales looks weirded out.

"Is that...?" He asks his partner, trailing off, before snapping his fingers in front of Gorski's face. "Hey! I need Will back!"

Officer Gorski jerks back, blinking hard, and then it's Kate's turn to jerk back in her chair because suddenly Nomi is there.

"Kate!" Nomi snaps. "What are you doing here? How did you even get here? Bug and I have been watching your cards."

"Uuuhhh," Kate draws out the sound, not sure how to answer the lady in her head without the cops thinking she's insane.

Fortunately, Officer Gorski solves this problem for her.

"Nom, you know her? You're visiting her?"

Officer Morales throws his hands up in the air and swears. "Fuck this, man."

Kate feels frozen like a deer in headlights. "Nomi?" She whispers, as if this will stop Officer Gorski from throwing her in a psych hospital and ruining her timetable.

"It's okay, Kate. Will is a part of my cluster. Will, Kate is part of the cluster I birthed. The one who lives in LA. Now," Nomi turns back to Kate. "What are you doing here, and how did you get here?" She has her hands on her hips and is imbued with enough mom-energy that Kate might feel properly cowed if not for the gross invasion of privacy she just admitted to.

"Well, I used cash in case you were monitoring my cards," Kate informs her. "So that you wouldn't do exactly what you're doing now."

Nomi's shoulders slump and she nods. "Okay. That's fair. But what are you doing here--"

"Yeah, and why are you asking about Milton?" Officer Morales asks.

A chill goes down Nomi's back, Will's back, Kate’s back, and time seems to stand still.

Kate feels Nomi's fear drip down her spine, a sense-memory so strong it’s metallic and bitter on her tongue. A hospital, a doctor, ready to cut into Nomi’s brain. _Whispers._ Kate’s eyes dart around the room, taking in all the people she doesn't know and cameras she can't trust.

“Shit,” Morales mutters, looking at his watch. “Lucky for you we’re done now and you can have this conversation off the clock.”

Gorski’s shoulders go back, his spine straightening, as he nods at someone Kate can’t see.

“Kate,” Nomi grasps her hand. “Whispers is dead. The BPO is floundering. You’re safe, you don’t need to look into this.”

“Yes, I do. You think the BPO didn’t have spies in it? Didn’t sell information or tech? I can’t--” Kate feels a fear creeping up the back of her throat and Loki is there, bumping her shoulder with their own.

“ _You’re right to be scared,_ ” Loki says. _“Look at where I’m at.”_

Kate does. _White walls and furniture built into the walls, smooth and boring and creepy as shit._

“ _You’re where you’re at because you tried to invade New York and I’m not apologizing for that, okay? Stop fishing.”_

“ _Moody.”_

“ _They haven’t….done anything to you?”_

“ _Like brainwashing? Nope. Safe so far.”_

_Kate leans against one of the pristine white walls. “I don’t like it.”_

“ _Nor me.”_

Loki eyes Gorski and Morales, who are watching her talk to no one with an amused smile and an exasperated one, respectively. _“They’re cute.”_

“ _God, don’t_ encourage _her,”_ Eli grouses before disappearing again.

“ _My, he’s tetchy.”_

“We keep interrupting date night.”

A look of evil glee crosses Loki’s face before they disappear, presumably to peter Eli during his date with Robbie, which Kate will undoubtedly get blamed for later.

Oh, well. Can’t win ‘em all.

Officers Gorski and Morales, along with Nomi and Cassie, walk out of the station.

“Riley have a show tonight?” Morales asks.

Gorski shakes his head. “Not for another few nights. She’s--”

A blonde woman rounds the corner, a huge smile splitting her face when she sees the cops, giving Morales a small wave and flinging her arms around Gorski.

Kate shakes her head, frowning at the woman, at the streak of blue in her hair, not wanting to say it in case she’s wrong.

“ _Riley_?”

**Author's Note:**

> so I walked about this...extensively...on tumblr a while back and decided to post some of it in honor of Sense8 rewatch month. I'm not married to some of the ideas I've got going on here, so if America is suddenly no longer a pilot, don't be surprised. Also not sure if this is going to be a series or a multi-chapter work yet.


End file.
